Hertz - New policy? No more $25 customer service coupons for complaints....

As a 5* gold member, I recently reserved a Corolla at PHX for a 5-day rental, but received a beat-up Rav4 with over 20,000 miles on it instead. (I had specifically selected a Green Collection vehicle, and actually usually get a Prius at PHX.) The Rav4 had a filthy windshield (my pet peeve) and there was all sorts of garbage in various locations in the car and what looked like a piece of dried nasal mucous stuck to the radio.

I complained about all this via the hertz.com website, and it took rather long for them to get back to me. They addressed the points I had raised, and concluded with "Apologies are seldom sufficient when customers receive poor service, and we regret your inconvenience. Every effort will be made to serve your future needs in a manner more consistent with your expectations and our standards."

This seemed like the brush-off some people have mentioned here. In the past, even minor complaints were usually worth one or two $25 customer service coupons, but no mention of that this time. So I wrote in again asking whether their policy had changed.

I got this response: "The Hertz Corporation like most companies are in the process of adjusting our operations to the current challenging economic conditions. We are utilizing the latest management tools available for operational evaluation and improvement to provide the quality of customer service you expect from The Hertz Corporation."

Sounds like a poor excuse to me, especially after I just spent $375 for five days of Rav4! In the end they did offer 2 x $25, but made it sound like they were doing me a favor.

Is this the new reality at Hertz, or what is going on?!

Why did you take RAV4 to begin with, especially on a 5-day rental?

I have to give Thrifty credit here, as with their Bluechip program you can get a day's worth credited, INCLUDING fees and taxes, for any valid complaint. Something like your scenario would definately qualify.

I had a $65 ai rental of a Ford Fusion last year. Same thing, Green Collection vehicle. When I got there they tried to stick me into everything but, and lied to me saying I had merely booked a fullsize car. When I finally told them it was a Green booking, I was then made to wait over 30 minutes to get the Fusion, which was dinged up all over.

I wrote in a complaint and got a $25 coupon. I cited Thrifty's customer guarantee and when pressed they finally credited the remaining $40 back onto my credit card.

So I wouldn't worry too much about them "cancelling" the coupon program. It's amazing what threatening to call the BBB can accomplish.

Why did you take RAV4 to begin with, especially on a 5-day rental?

Yeah I'll speak to that too. Me with a Corolla booked I'd have refused to leave the desk until I had Corolla keys in my hand. Now if they upgraded me to a Prius, also a Green car, then I'd probably be fine with that, but still.

I have a major problem with companies offering these great programs and then not following through. If you say it's reservable by make and model, DO IT. If you can't do it, pull the program.

I had a problem with a luxury rental at my local airport. The gave me the keys to a Lincoln Town Car, which was fine, get out to it, start driving and in order to even try to drive straight you had to hold the steering wheel at a 45 degree angle, and if you tried to center the wheel, it would veer hard to the right.

Returned it, explained the problem and the desk employees were generally very concerned. They looked around for a bit and the best they could find was a Ford Edge, which had over 20,000 miles and smelled of smoke covered up by bad deodorizer. I figured the next morning I'd resolve it and swap it out.

Now of course the swap didn't happen because they had no vehicles and if it wasn't for my going well out of my way, I would have been stuck in the Ford Edge. After driving 40 miles round trip I was given a Cadillac DTS with a few thousand on the odometer.

I wrote Hertz, explained the problems, the inconvenience, time, gas, etc, and just received the generic reply. Now I can understand running out of a class of vehicle, but they weren't even offering to reduce the rate, etc. I love Hertz for the Prestige Collection (which is what I mostly rent), but if outside of the areas with this service, the vehicle quality is subpar for the most part and that is sad for me to say.